ROBBY GORDON TO START THIRD IN SATURDAY'S MINT 400

Company press release.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (March 14, 2014) – Despite being one of the final qualifiers in a stacked field of more than 50 Trophy Trucks and more than 35 off-road buggies, Robby Gordon will start third in Saturday's Mint 400.

Gordon and his No. 77 SPEED Energy/Toyo Tires/Traxxas truck overcame difficult Las Vegas-desert track conditions left by more than 80 competitors in front of him to record a lap of 3 minutes, 12.943 seconds over the 3.4-mile qualifying loop. His time was less than three seconds short of top-qualifier Dale Dondel (3 minutes, 10.295 seconds) and second-fastest qualifier Bryce Menzies (3:10.850).

Dondel will start alone in the first position while Menzies and Gordon will start side-by-side in second. Desert racing is a race against the clock and it is critical for competitors to start near the front of the field due to dust and rapidly deteriorating track conditions. The Mint 400 consists of four 100-mile laps, which in addition to changing course conditions also causes lapped traffic to become an issue throughout the final three-laps.

Gordon won the 2012 Mint 400 and did not compete in the 2013 race. Menzies is defending champion.

The race begins at 1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT) and is likely to take more than six hours for the winner to complete. Gordon's winning time in 2012 was just more than six hours and five minutes.

Gordon, who has won at every level of motorsport in which he has competed including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the IndyCar series, is a 10-time participant and nine-time stage winner in the famed Dakar Rally international off-road race – where he became the first American to win a stage in 2005 – a three-time Baja 1000 winner, a four-time Baja 500 winner, a seven-time SCORE International Off-Road Series Champion and the 2012 Best in the Desert Grand Champion.

Fans can participate in the Mint 400 experience by connecting on http://www.planetrobby.com and follow along with the team on Facebook and Twitter at: www.facebook.com/thespeedenergydrink, and http://twitter.com/SPEED_ENERGY.

The No. 77 Trophy Truck is supported by SPEED Energy, Toyo Tires, Traxxas, 4 Wheel Parts, Chevrolet, Magnaflow Exhaust, Eibach Springs, Mastercraft Safety, Embee Performance, MAC Tools, Replay XD, Impact Racing, Lincoln Welders, Ron Davis Racing Products, Techni Waterjet, Hella, Mechanix Wear, Saftey-Kleen, Kartek Off-Road, Team Gordon Race Wheels, Jamar, Anaheim Hills Auto Body, Trelleborg, Macs, Torchmate, and T-Rex Grills.

---

Trending News

• Tire Rack and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Ink New Circuit and Race Sponsorships
• Power is in the small details: celebrating the achievements of Bugatti's service partners
• BMW NA 50th Anniversary | 50 Stories for 50 Years Chapter 17: 'BMW M Achieves Wide Appeal: Unique E36 M3 Models for the U.S.'
• Round 1, Navarra: 4 unique winners to start the season
• Toyota Expands Commitment to Hydrogen Society with Fleet, Infrastructure and Next-Gen System Debut

---

Photo by RaceDezert